Stumpy Returns

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Another great week for the Painting Challenge, with loads of submissions coming in, including one from long-time participant, Stumpy.

Stumpy has taken the Challenge every year since it first started, meaning that this is his seventh year of entries, and with an average annual points score of just over 2,000. Impressive.

Here’s his first entry of the year: an LRDG Jeep and an M8 Armoured Car:

Lots of other entries as well. Here’s a little pictorial summary, but I do recommend that you visit people’s individual galleries as well:

Scorecard will be updated in due course.

Keep ‘em coming!

Three Tankers

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Regular visitors will know that I picked up a handful of 3D printed 15mm vehicles when I went to the Overlord show in Abingdon the other day. Time to get a bit of paint on the models to see how they turn out:

Front to back they are the US GMC CCKW 353 tanker, the British/Commonwealth CMP tanker, and the Soviet Zis 5 tanker.

As you can see, the 3D printing is pretty obvious at this close range, but is actually far less noticeable at usual wargames table 3ft distance. I also think the effect is magnified by seeing the three vehicles together.

On the whole I’m pretty happy: each vehicle was only £4 or £5, and as these are the only tankers I’ve come across in the marketplace…

www.syborg3dprinting.co.uk

IABSM AAR: September War #60: Szack

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Time to break out the I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum again with a scenario taken from the second September War scenario book: #60 Szack.

Szack was a small village in what was south-eastern Poland (it’s now just inside Ukraine) that was the site of a backwards-and-forwards series of actions between the Poles and the Soviets in very late September 1939. The scenario covers the first Soviet attack:

Soviet troops consisting of the 112th Infantry Regiment, some 13,000 soldiers supported by fifteen T-26 tanks and fifteen guns, arrived at the village of Szack on September 28th.

The Polish force near the village numbered 4,000 men of the Border Protection Corp, including General Wilhelm Orlik-Rückermann, and sixteen anti-tank guns.

Having taken the village, the Soviets then charged the Polish positions with infantry supported by the T-26 tanks. The Poles waited until the Soviets were right on top of them before opening fire with their anti-tank guns, destroying eight tanks.

Click on the picture below to see the action:

More ECW Figures

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I’m still slowly working my way through what I need to field a decent sized English Civil War army.

Today’s unit is the first of the pike-heavy foot battalia i.e. where there are equal numbers of pikemen and musketeers in the unit rather than the more usual 2:1 ratio in favour of musketeers.

These are Peter Pig figures in 15mm painted, as usual, with GW Contrast Paints.

I wasn’t sure how to represent the difference between standard and pike-heavy units: I wanted something that could be seen easily on the tabletop without the need for additional markers.

I had thought of narrowing the unit by putting the extra pikemen in a third rank in the centre but, in the end, settled just for keeping the same shape of unit. Looking at a standard and pike-heavy unit next to each other, I’m quite happy with the way they compare: the difference is subtle but obvious.

IABSM AAR: The Arras Counter-Attack

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One of the great things about the world of Lard is the growing profusion of Lardy Days, where Lard-minded gamers can get together and indulge in their favourite pastime.

One of the early events on the 2020 Lard calendar was the Big Winter Wonder-Lard day held by Bristol Independent Gamers at the end of February. About twelve games, all fully participation, were run in each of the morning and afternoon sessions, covering just about the whole spectrum of Lard: What A Tanker; Chain of Command; Bag the Hun; Sharp Practice and, of course, I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum.

That game was run by Phil and Jenny, and featured action from the Arras Counter-Attack in May 1940. Click on the picture below to see an excellent pictorial report of the day’s events (lifted from the IABSM Facebook Group):

Good Time at Overlord

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I last went to Overlord, Abingdon Wargames Club's annual show, some years ago, and all I remember was how small the show was, with few trade stands, and quite frankly not much to do.

I remember it well, incidentally, because that was where I bought my Peter Pig solid resin French buildings for use in my May 1940 WW2 gaming…not that I would ever buy solid resin buildings again: they look great but where do you put the troops that are in them? This must have also been before the great mdf scenery explosion, as that’s what I would buy now!

Anyhow, a throw-away comment by a fellow-gamer reminded me that it was on yesterday and, as it happens, I was able to negotiate a trip, and very glad I was too.

Aside from meeting up with said fellow-gamer and friends, the show is now in Abingdon & Whitney College, which has ample carparking, nice toilets (unisex!), a reasonable snack bar, and much more room for trade stands and games.

One of the games that caught my eye is pictured above: a 28mm “China invades Australia” game using Empress Figures. Very nice indeed.

There were also about thirty trade stands there, so I was able to get what I went for (flowers to dress the element bases of my ECW armies) and have a browse to see if there was anything new to see.

Well, there was: Syborg 3D Printing, a new (to me!) company producing 3D printed model vehicles in 15mm, specialising in somewhat obscure types from WW2 to the present day.

What caught my eye was their WW2 fuel tankers: a GMC CCKW 353 Truck for the Americans, a Canadian Military Pattern - Tanker for the British, and (my favourite) a Zis 5 truck - Tanker for the Soviets.

They were all bought very quickly, and have leapfrogged to the front of the painting queue! I shall be keeping my eye open for more from them too.

So a good trip to Abingdon, and a date for my diary for next year too.

New Month, More Entries

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Another set of magnificent entries into this year’s Painting Challenge.

Here’s today’s album:

Q13: Strato Minis Studio

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Here’s another 15mm sci-fi figure manufacturer: Strato Minis Studio.

They produce a nice range of battle-suited infantry with armour and walker supports. I particularly like the new 15mm “Stormbreaker Jump Infantry”, although I do note that the bases and supporting wire aren’t included.

Strato are a Polish company, who produce their figures in resin. All prices are in dollars. Here’s a picture of their Tengu Medium Tank:

IABSM AAR: Lard Re-Visited

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I was browsing the Internet the other day when I came across George Anderson’s excellent blog Musings on Wargaming and Life. Some really good content on the site, including a battle report from his first time playing IABSM.

George has played other TFL games but, as I said, this was his first time playing IABSM. Hopefully he’ll give it another go, but this does go to show that here on VL you’ll find every IABSM battle report, even the ones that aren’t totally positive.

Click on the pic below to see all:

Quick Painting Challenge Update

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Some lovely entries to the Challenge this week.

Here’s a pictorial summary:

Don’t forget that there are plenty more to see in the individual galleries!

IABSM AAR: Blenneville or Bust! #3C: Pierrecourt

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Tim Whitworth and chums continue to play the Blenneville or Bust! campaign. We seem to have missed out on an AAR for the second scenario, but here’s the report for their third game: Pierrecourt.

The Germans are defending, the Americans attacking. Who will prevail? Click on the picture, below, to see all.

IABSM AAR: Blenneville or Bust! #01: West of Pierrecourt

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Tim Whitworth and friends have started playing through the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack: a pyramid campaign set in Normandy in 1944.

In the first encounter, #01 West of Pierrecourt, American reconnaissance troops probe forward looking for a bridge over the river that will take the weight of their armour, but the Germans lie in wait…

Click on the picture, below, to see what happened.

A Bit of Painting & Building

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Here’s everyone busy playing IABSM left right and centre, and all I can find the time for is to paint and build a little bit of terrain!

As regular visitors will know, I’m currently putting together English Civil War forces to use with For King & Parliament. I’ve already finished enough standard troops to play one side of the sample scenario in the rulebook, the Battle of Montgomery, but hadn’t had the chance to complete any command figures. Until now, that is, so here is the first command stand: Colonel-level, so two figures.

These are 15mm Essex figures. I’m using Peter Pig for the troops, Essex for the command stands, and mostly GW Contrast paints to, er, paint them with.

Nice figures, although I couldn’t quite work out what the thing the Colonel himself was wearing on his chest. I’ve painted it as a sort of yellow/gold braid effect on top of a red waistcoat, but now I note that the painted version on the Essex site has it as a sort of chainmail vest. No matter: at three foot away, what’s the difference!

I also needed some buildings to represent a village in the second scenario I want to play, so found these rather spectacular “Timber-Framed Houses” from 4ground Publishing.

These come in the usual flat-pack format, but are relatively easy to build: I did all four in a single evening. They are also very tolerant of idiots: you can’t see it, but I completely mucked up one build and, as I idiotically use Superglue when putting things like this together, trying to fix any mistakes can be…testing, shall we say. Despite my cackhandedness, I think you have to agree how good they look, and that’s straight from the packet: I’m sure that better modellers than I can customize them to look even better.

Anyway, that’s four lovely houses done and dusted. Price for all four was £47 plus postage: which I think is a fair price considering I now have all the buildings I need for a 2-4 square FK&P town.

Here’s a close-up of one of the timber-framed cottages:

IABSM AAR: Bashnya or Bust! #01: Near Osen

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Here’s an After Action Report from a game from this weekend that I was due to play in but eventually could not make because of scheduling issues!

Friends Bevan, Mark and Dave have started to play through the Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack for I Ain’t Been Shot Mum, and here’s the battle report from the first game: #01: Near Osen.

Click on the picture below to see all: